Rental market summit crowds Rochester City Hall

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A full house of local landlords and representatives from a variety of city neighborhood associations gathered at Rochester’s first rental market summit held Tuesday at City Hall.
The summit derived from the Rochester City-Wide Housing Market Study, which last year resulted in a set of recommendations used as a guide for future planning efforts.
Mayor Robert J. Duffy opened the morning’s event by reminding property owners that they are essential business owners in the city.
“You are here because you’re making an investment in your life and you are a bright side to this community,” the mayor said.
Representatives from The Housing Council, Legal Aid, New York State Coalition of Landlords and several local landlord associations were on hand to answer questions and learn what landlords are most concerned about within the rental market.
Alex Castro, executive director of the Housing Council in Rochester, said his role and the role of other city associations at the event is to talk not only to landlords about what can be improved, but what can be planned for the future.
“We currently provide landlord workshops and one-on-one business management with landlords,” Castro said. “What we’re introducing now is a new Web site for the Housing Council — www.RocLandlord.com, which will take landlords directly to the part of our Web site designed for them.”
The site is free and allows landlords to offer advice to each other.
Castro said the site also includes a section where questions can be posted and fellow landlords can answer based on their experiences.
According to Castro, 60 percent of the properties in the City of Rochester are rental units, making landlords the largest group of small business owners in the city.
“Sixty percent of our tax base is landlord-owned, which means the city cannot not pay attention to this group,” Castro said.
Tuesday’s summit saw a large turnout, filling the City Hall space to capacity.
One of the morning’s more passionate speakers was Mary D’Alessandro of the New York State Coalition of Landlords, who discussed the importance of changing tenant behavior to create a better rental market.
“Tenants are residents; they reside in our community. Why should they not be held accountable≠” D’Alessandro asked. “We have to remember that they have to live some where; they will be someone’s neighbor and, rather than move them around, we need to change their behavior if Rochester is to heal. We need to work together with the city to accomplish this.”
D’Alessandro said education for tenants is a must.
“Classes where tenants can contribute to the community and learn how to be good neighbors, learn how to clean their apartment and learn how to send their children to school,” D’Alessandro suggested. “They need to learn the importance of paying rent and they need to be taught that it is unacceptable for an able-bodied person not to work. Monroe County needs to step up to the bat to help us.”
D’Alessandro evoked a strong reaction from the crowd.
“Expectations need to be raised and until we address the behavior of a tenant, Rochester will continue to see vacant houses, unstable neighborhoods and unpaid taxes,” she said.
Castro said the City of Rochester is very focused on homeownership when, in fact, it is a city of renters.
“It’s O.K. to focus on homeownership but, right now, in order to reach homeownership goals, you have to get a very healthy rental market before you can get to a healthy homeownership market,” Castro said.
According to city officials, more events like Tuesday’s summit are planned to give property owners more opportunities to bring ideas together.
For more information visit www.ci.rochester.ny.us.